Paternosters...ever been on one?

[slowmotion]

Anybody been to the Levant tin mine in Cornwall? There was a terrible accident there in 1919. The mine used a " Man Engine" to get the miners up and down the main shaft.......read on....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_engine


Compared to Paternoster lifts, the Man Engine would have H&E peeps foaming. It's a simple and clever concept though, isn't it..? You hop on and hop off...

 

[Proto]

I was reminiscing about these contraptions today, as we used to have one at Salford Uni.

Hey, I've been in that one!! If I remember correctly it was in the Chemistry Dept tower block.

Yep, it was a hoot.



BTW I was an engineering student at the time. We used to got to the Chem labs to use the unbelievably sophisticated electronic calculators, so valuable that they were bolted to the desk. I seem to recall they were made by Singer. I usually had to make do with my slide rule until my dad splashed out and bought me a Sinclair Oxford 300

 

[Campfire]

There was one in Y Block at Risley, when I worked for The Nuclear Power Group. We moved from Radbroke Hall at Knutsford to Risley and we used to go up and down in these things, they were such a novelty. I don't know whether they still exist in that building, as it is now used by various small companies and the building is now Thompson House. Probably banned for H & S reasons. They were great fun!

 

[Proto]

I'm not convinced that if someone came up with the idea of a paternoster today it would ever get past the fag packet sketch stage.

I always think the same about trains and railway stations.

"Okay Mr Stephenson, lets make sure I understand you correctly. Folk stand on a platform a couple of feet away from the train which is rushing past at speeds of up to 80mph? And there is nothing to stop them falling off the edge into the path of the train?

Mr Stephenson, come back when you've thought this through."

 

[Red Light]

Anybody been to the Levant tin mine in Cornwall? There was a terrible accident there in 1919. The mine used a " Man Engine" to get the miners up and down the main shaft.......read on....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_engine


Compared to Paternoster lifts, the Man Engine would have H&E peeps foaming. It's a simple and clever concept though, isn't it..? You hop on and hop off...

The Trondheim Bicycle Lift looks quite scary too

[media]
]View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j1PgmMbug8[/media]

 

[slowmotion]

The Trondheim Bicycle Lift looks quite scary too

[media]
]View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j1PgmMbug8[/media]

I guess you need to cover the brakes just in case

I hate the lack of symmetry! It looks so WRONG.

 

[Dan B]

Engineering Department at Oxford had one too. Probably still does unless they've replaced it. Beat waiting for the lift.

Not by the time I got there (1992), it didn't. But people still talked about it, so I guess it was replaced not long prior to then

 

[growingvegetables]

The Trondheim Bicycle Lift looks quite scary too

Don't care how scary it looks - I can think of more than a few wee bumps where I'd happily "be scared"

 

[vernon]

Anybody been to the Levant tin mine in Cornwall? There was a terrible accident there in 1919. The mine used a " Man Engine" to get the miners up and down the main shaft.......read on....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_engine


Compared to Paternoster lifts, the Man Engine would have H&E peeps foaming. It's a simple and clever concept though, isn't it..? You hop on and hop off...

Been there. It's a very atmospheric place. I was horrified when i read about the man engine on a display panel there.

 

[vernon]

So who's been over the top in a paternoster then?

Me! In the one that was in the Roger Stevens Lecture Theatre block at Leeds university. My mates who were in the know, scared the living daylights out of me when they braced themselves for the inversion after passing the point of no return. Like a fool I did likewise breaking into a cold sweat at the same time.....

There were rumours circulating about fatalities in paternosters at other universities, Newcastle springs to mind, where students had died as the box went over the top because it was a different design and the box became a flat pack at the very top.....

It didn't make my experience any less stressful.

The paternoster was removed at least a decade ago. I wanted to have another go fo old times' sake and was disappointed to discover that it had gone when I dropped in to play.

Another 'game' that some of my fellow undergraduates had was to see how far we could get thhrough the underground service tunnels from the Holdsworth School - the end of the Leeds campus nearest to Otley. We managed to reach the Parkinson Building.

 

[Red Light]

So who's been over the top in a paternoster then?

Moi. Over the top and under the bottom many times!!

 

[Archie_tect]

Me! In the one that was in the Roger Stevens Lecture Theatre block at Leeds university. My mates who were in the know, scared the living daylights out of me when they braced themselves for the inversion after passing the point of no return. Like a fool I did likewise breaking into a cold sweat at the same time.....

There were rumours circulating about fatalities in paternosters at other universities, Newcastle springs to mind, where students had died as the box went over the top because it was a different design and the box became a flat pack at the very top.....

It didn't make my experience any less stressful.

The paternoster was removed at least a decade ago. I wanted to have another go fo old times' sake and was disappointed to discover that it had gone when I dropped in to play.

Another 'game' that some of my fellow undergraduates had was to see how far we could get thhrough the underground service tunnels from the Holdsworth School - the end of the Leeds campus nearest to Otley. We managed to reach the Parkinson Building.

The paternoster boxes were solid at Newcastle but someone did panic and jumped off as it went up beyond the top floor.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I knew a girl called Paternoster, no further details available for publication.

 

[Spinney]

So who's been over the top in a paternoster then?

Moi.

Under the bottom more - the biggest queues were in the morning, when we wanted to go up the building.

 

[Fab Foodie]

I knew a girl called Paternoster, no further details available for publication.

Did you go 'over the top' in her box?